Thursday, July 26, 2012

I try to keep busy. Really, I do. It's not all daydreaming and playing video games. :)

This week's soap pot, as usual, I split into 2 different soaps. I got in a few different fragrance oils a couple of weeks ago, and been having fun with them. This time, an old favorite of mine that I haven't made in a while, and so glad I ordered again ... Pomegranate Fig. Yum! Swirled with a nice deep red made from red clay with a touch of red oxide.

Pomegranate Fig, the log, and the cut soap.

And next, a new fragrance for me, called Green Cactus. Out of the bottle, it smells more floral to me. Unless the fragrance designer was thinking of a flowering cactus. I like it, but I might call the soap something else. We'll see. I made a layered soap for this. Green. :) I'm very happy with the look of this soap.

Both of these soaps will be ready around the 3rd week in August.

Last week, I made another old favorite of mine, Sandalwood Vanilla. Another fragrance I have been out of for a while, and I'm glad I ordered again. I used red clay and red oxide to make a very dark red, and with the vanilla from the fragrance, it should turn a nice dark mahogany color. It was cloudy and rainy the day I took these pictures, so the lighting is not good at all.

The other half of this soap pot, I used a new fragrance for me called Fresh Cut Rose. I, of course, colored it with rose clay. It has a florist rose scent. Very nice!

And, another soap pot, split into 2. This was 3 weeks ago, and in fact the soaps are cured and listed in my Etsy shop. Both are restocks, that I have been out of stock for a while. Both are scented with essential oils.

Ginger Lavender, a layered soap. A nice mix of lavender and ginger with a touch of lemon. I've been sprinkling lemon quite liberally in my soaps lately. :-D I like it!

And, Lemon Peppermint. Last year, I called this Summer Peppermint, but it's a bit late in the season for talking summer. :) A blend of lemon and peppermint essential oils, swirled with green clay.

I haven't been making a lot of jewelry lately. But I did make this really pretty Turquoise and Coral Bracelet. It's a beauty! I really love this turquoise from the Kingman mine.

I always like using my ironwood coyote to help me display my turquoise jewelry. :)

And this is my vintage Navajo basket that is nice to use for display sometimes.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Every year I like to make a pumpkin fall soap. Usually, I'm a little behind the eight ball and don't do it until around September, which means it's usually not ready to sell until October. But this year, I made it early enough so it will be ready by Labor Day! Even a week or two before Labor Day! Who'da thunk it! :-D

This soap is fairly easy to make, as long as I don't try anything too fancy with it. I add goat milk, and real pureed pumpkin. For fragrance oil, this year I used a mix of Pumpkin Raisin Royale, and Apple Orchard. A double whammy of fall! Now, between the goat milk, the pumpkin, and the fragrance oils, this soap gets SO hot, it starts gelling almost as soon as I pour it. I can feel the heat as I'm scrapping the last of it out of the soap pot. Within 5 minutes, this soap is going into a very hot gel, without any kind of insulating. So, I got out my camera and took pictures. Yeah, I know, it doesn't take much to entertain me!

Just poured into the molds, not gelling yet. Look at that gorgeous pumpkin color!

( click on any photo to enlarge )

A good start to the gelling process.

A little more

A little more

A little more

Getting there

Almost

Full gel !!!

Those soaps were some hot!

Here's one of the logs the next day, unmolded and ready for cutting.

And here they are, cut into bars and ready to go on the curing rack for a few weeks. Lovely lovely pumpkin color! But alas, they will not stay that way. They will turn more brown. That's ok, though, cause they smell delicious !!!!!